Lewis, Table for one
by Little White Dress
Summary: Darcy Lewis, freshly graduated and treating herself to a celebratory meal is met with an offer she can't refuse. Meanwhile Dr. Reed Richards, still recovering along with his team from their space mishap, puts out an ad for a new lab assistant. There's only one applicant.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I'll do my best to update and stay on track with this story. If anyone would like to make any suggestions for things to add in I'd be very appreciative. Also, the story is based more on the marvel movie universe instead of the comics. So be kind.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of it. So you no sue, I no cry in the shower with a pint of butter pecan icecream.

Her name had been called and she'd risen with the others, making her way up the podium and collecting the rolled up paper with its maroon ribbon tied crookedly, making Darcy Lewis's hot-rod red smeared lips frown some. You'd think for a place as swanky as Culver University they'd manage to make the diploma's a little neater. Remembering where she was she offered the dean a smug little grin as she shook his hand and continued down to where the rest of her graduating class awaited, anxiously and excitedly clutching hats, anticipating the moment the word was given to toss the ugly square things into the air.

The brunette, wanting to keep her own, opted to steal one from the boy next to her and launched it into the air prematurely and whooped loudly, "LEWIS 2012!" This was accompanied with her own in zone dance of sorts, backing that fine ass of hers up some, only to lose traction upon noticing that all eyes were on her. She gave a nervous laugh, adjusting the thick rimmed glasses on her face, and waving at the dean, who despite a very stern face on normal occasions found the whole thing to be rather amusing, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Culver University class of 2012."

Applause rang out and Darcy found herself in a downpour of caps and thunderous cheers from the newly graduated "adults" around her. People began to make their way to their loved ones who'd shown up to see this landmark of a day, but the previous political science major didn't bother. No one would be around today. Jane was off in Europe or something working on some top secret blah-de-blah-blah thing that she'd not been invited on by SHEILD. Selvig had never said where he was going. Her parents had bit the dust a long time ago, or at least that's what she told herself, it was easier for a kid in the foster system to cling to then the idea that she'd just been unwanted. Darcy Lewis didn't need no stinkin' attendees for today anyways. Today was about her and she intended to celebrate it the same way she did with every big milestone in her life. Alone.

It had become her little tradition of sorts. No matter how broke she was, Darcy would scrounge a little money up to take herself out to a nice dinner when there was a special occasion. When she turned 13 she had snuck into a socialite's wedding, wearing an oversized old prom dress she'd nicked from Goodwill, and celebrated her birthday with a Cornish game hen and two glasses of pink champagne before being discovered and tossed out. The time she lost her virginity to her science teacher at 15 she'd stolen his wallet and decided to dine Parisian, spending a total of 300 dollars on appetizers alone. After making it through high school she'd saved money up from summer jobs to try sushi for the first time, still wearing her cap and gown. When she'd got accepted into Culver university she went to town on six different types of cheesecake at an upscale bakery.

After surviving her bizarre internship with Jane Foster last summer in New Mexico, aka the sea of beige, and both tasering and meeting a real live Norse god Darcy had to settle for a box of blue berry pop tarts and a bottle of Jack Daniels as she struggled to understand just how close to dying she'd come when Mr. Superfine space hobo and his robot brother leveled the town they'd been staying in. It was amazing that out of all the crazy that went down her only two regrets had been the lack of some sort of dinner roll basket being brought to her and the loss of her beloved IPod.

Ditching the maroon bathrobe in her beat up old jeep Cherokee, she shimmied into a nice black dress right there in the parking lot, not caring if anyone was offended or just a little to tuned into her lime green bra, got in and drove off into the city. Be it a lack of traffic or just how quickly time went by when you blared Shania Twaine's "Like a Woman" on repeat, she reached a fancy looking bistro within just minutes, stepping out and tossing her keys, which must have weighed about 5 pounds with how many key chains were linked together on it, to a valet, "Take good care of her for me, oh, and there's a snickers bar in the glove box. Go crazy."

The teenage boy did his best not to gape at her in her cleavage baring black dress as she confidently strode past him and into the restaurant, approaching the hostess, "Hi. Lewis. Party of one."

The skinny blond twig of a woman, sporting a name tag reading "Claire" gave her a once over, before lifting her snooty nose into the air, "Do you have a reservation?"

"Uh. Duh. Why else would I have said my name, plus party of one?" She put her hands on her hips.

Claire looked down at her list and then back at her with a dull unimpressed expression, "There is no reservation under Lewis. May I suggest you try the Ihop down the road?"

Before her trusty Taser made an appearance, and boy was it about too, and smooth male voice would speak up, "Try again. Under Coulson, party of 2." The agent from New Mexico was standing there, looking unassuming and pleasant in his crisp black suit, smiling at Darcy with a level expression on his face, "I hope you don't mind me joining you."

The voluptuous young woman cautiously looked at him, "uh, Jane's not here. Oh god." She would suddenly whisper, "you're not here to like…off me, are you? Cause that would be pretty messed up. I'm excited to try this place's salmon, but fish as a last meal? Lame." She was nervously rambling, her voice slowly regaining normal volume and he'd silence her with a look as the hostess looked up from her list.

"…Right this way please." Claire said unpleasantly, leading them to a discreet table in a darker half of the joint, separated from the rest with a red velvet rope. Darcy followed like a good girl, but only because she had no real escape plan.

After being seated and brought sparkling wine, Darcy looked over at the agent uncomfortably shifting in her seat, and began to butter a dinner roll with her butter knife grasped tightly in her hand.

The agent gave her a sympathetic look, "Ms. Lewis, you have no need to be worried, you're not in trouble or any sort of danger,"

"No offense, but then why are you here?" She didn't lessen her grip on her dining utensil. She couldn't imagine what he'd want with her.

"I'm here to congratulate you. Culver's a very good school." Coulson held his hand up, signaling the waiter, "We'll have a bottle of champagne please. Also, could you have the chef whip up something special, we're celebrating her college graduation."

The waiter nodded and off he went. Darcy arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow as she looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. "Uh. No offense. But that sounds like total and complete bullshit. There's no way you're here to hang out with me. Yeah, I get it, I experienced thunder-Romeo's little showdown with his brother back in New Mexico, but I didn't think I'd see you dudes again after you jacked my ipod and deleted my facebook. By the way. You missed my myspace account." She smirked some.

"No one uses myspace anymore. It wasn't an issue." He dryly said as the waiter returned, pouring them both drinks, then quickly darting away to another table at Coulson's dismissive glance. "But you're not wrong. In normal circumstances we'd of kept tabs on you for a few years, but avoided direct contact unless you'd continued to work with Dr. Foster or any of her affiliates, and even then you'd of been handled by a lower level associate of mine."

"So… what makes this circumstance…unnormal?" She awkwardly lifted her glass to her lips and watched him.

A folder somehow materialized from Coulson's briefcase, that Darcy had failed to notice, and made its way into her hands. She cautiously opened it up and came face to face with various snapshots of three men and one very stunning woman. "…What's this? Reed Richards…Ben Grimm?" She was pretty sure she'd heard those names before from Jane, but couldn't place where, as sometimes she tended to space out when she and Selvig got going on science talk.

"Dr. Richards recently took part in a shuttle mission sponsored by Von Doom Industries to study cosmic energy and it's relation to human genetics. However there was an incident and his calculations were off, a large storm overtook the space craft they were in. …The storm happens to coincide with the appearance of our mutual friend from another world."

Darcy frowned, "…Are you saying that thunder-hobo's coming here killed these people?" There was an intense sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn't see the friendly blond giant taking that well at all once Jane brought him back planet-side.

"They've all survived the accident." Coulson assured her and watched as she visibly relaxed. "But…there have been some severe reactions to the radiation they encountered in space."

"No way." Darcy's eyes flickered back down to the papers, "Dude. They went all superhero from it didn't they? That's… Cool."

Coulson smiled at her childlike wonder. "Yes. It is."

Their food would appear moments later and Darcy took a second to take a whiff of the still steaming prime rib that had been put down before her, then looked at him, "I still don't get why you're here."

"Given your ability to handle abnormal circumstances and the work you've done as a lab assistant, paired with your newly acquired degree in political science and public relations SHIELD would like to offer you a job."

Darcy dropped her fork.

"What?"

"We need someone to covertly keep an eye on them, while running interference with the media if and when their powers come to light. We've already taken the liberty of submitting a resume and application to the Baxter Building for you, as well as deleting any other applicants from their inbox."

"That's pretty ballsy, what if I tell you no?" The recent graduate managed to pick her eating utensil back up, acting as if she wasn't shocked that this was really happening.

"We're very confident that you'll take the offer. If you look in the folder you'll find a starting salary,"

Coulson took a moment to take a bite of his own food and chewed slowly, watching as her blue eyes bugged out behind her glasses. The brunette gave him a look of disbelief, than finished off the drink in her glass. "That's insane. Like. Charlie Sheen on a Sunday cuckoo for cocaine-puffs."

"I'll send a car in a week's time to transport you to the airport, in the meantime tie up any loose ends here in town and pack." Coulson would stand up, and pulled his wallet from his inner jacket pocket, producing a pure black credit card and placing it on the table. "Dinners on us. Order anything you'd like. We look forward to working with you Miss Lewis."

Agent Coulson then departed from the bistro.

Darcy picked up the black card from the table and flagged the waiter down, a wicked look coming across her face, "Garcon, I'd like to order one of everything on the menu to go, along with your finest wine, I'm celebrating tonight." Then with an afterthought she glanced at the blonde hostess walking by. "And charge a hundred dollar tip to everyone in the joint except for blond ambition over there."

The waiter looked alarmed, but nodded, "I'll…be sure to do that."

Darcy Lewis smugly went back to eating her dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Okay, chapter two is a little smaller then I'd of liked, but I have work in the morning and I'd like to update as frequently as possible. I'm still trying to grasp my version of Darcy still. I'd like her to be snarky and whatnot, but I don't want to write her like Kat Denning's other character Max Black from 2 Broke Girls. So bear with me kids.

DISCLAIMER: The M in my name isn't for Marvel, so I own nothing.

Wrapping up things in Virginia had been no problem. Her apartment was some month-to-month place she'd been sharing with a strangely well-spoken stripper named Morgan, who had been cool with her splitting with the stipulation that she could crash at Darcy's new place in New York City if she ever got the itch to try her acting career out again. She'd also given Morgan her jeep, because she really had no need for it in New York, not to mention the fact that it was going to fall apart any day now. She finished packing up all of her stuff and looked around her empty room. "Looks like I'm all set…"

Morgan, who'd just moments ago had been eating leftover pizza and watching the news, stood in the doorway, "Looks like. Okay babes, it's been swell knowing you, but there's a car here for you and I've got a potential roomie on their way to see the room."

"Oh Morgan, stop, you'll make me cry with all your sweet sweet goodbyes." Darcy scoffed, but gave the black haired dancer a grin.

The two girls would pull each other into hugs. Darcy took a moment to reflect on what she getting herself into. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard, sure, these people had super powers, but they were supposed to be a bunch of lame scientists and astronauts who were on the down low for the time being. She'd probably just be fetching coffee, cleaning work spaces, and sending boring reports back to Agent Stone-face.

The television was still going in the living room and the audio would catch Darcy's attention, causing her to break the friendly embrace and push past Morgan to see the screen.

"They're being called the Fantastic Four…We go now to the scene where these four extraordinary persons are giving statements concerning today's bridge accident…"

Darcy stared as the people from her file popped up on the news one by one. Well, aside from Ben Grimm, but she had a feeling the man made of orange rock might be him. Morgan saw what caught her attention and gaped at the screen, "Whoa. No way. That's just…intense."

"Yeah. Real intense."

They'd only been back at the Baxter building for a few days after being released from the recovery center and dealing with the situation on the Brooklyn Bridge. Ben wasn't talking to anyone for the time being, spending most of his time staring at the diamond ring resting on the coffee table in the lounge. Reed had thrown himself into his work, blaming himself for his friend's transformation, searching diligently for some way to reverse things. Sue Storm was silently sitting by Ben, trying to comfort him with presence alone as he didn't want to open up. And Johnny, well, he was going stir crazy.

"How long exactly are we going to keep this crazy quarantine up? Cause I haven't been outside in like 2 whole days and as much fun as it is sitting around and watching a rock weep, I could really go for some tacos. And maybe some water skiing. Do you think I'd just make a big steam trail?"

Sue shot her brother a look for how insensitive he was coming across, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder as the man clenched his hands with rage. "Suzy, I love ya, but if your little brother doesn't learn to shut his mouth I'm going to clobber him!"

"Ooo Clobber. That could be your catch phrase." Johnny smirked, and proceeded to do his best impression of the man's low gruff voice, "It's clobbering time!"

"Johnny!" Sue snapped, standing up, her eyes fixed on him the way their mother's used to. "Apologize."

"What? Ol' Grimm here knows I'm just having a laugh," He'd jump the sofa, sitting next to Ben, who was grinding his teeth. "I love ya big guy, ooo, you know, I always wanted a pet rock."

He just nearly avoided the fist that came his way as Reed's elongated arms pulled him out of the way, before correcting themselves to an average size. "What's going on in here? I can hardly work with all the noise."

Ben just scoffed and stood up, "I'm going up to the roof," before making his way out of the room to go find some peace.

The beautiful blond woman would look after him with a sympathetic expression, before fixing her gaze on the two remaining men in the room, "Johnny, lay off of Ben, and Reed. There are more important things happening here then you being able to fiddle with your beakers right now." Reed opened his mouth, looking startled, "But I'm trying to fix things… I just need more time and fewer distractions…and maybe a little help."

Sue's eyes softened some, hearing the tiredness in his voice, "I'll give you the help I can, but only after you take a moment to rest. You've been non stop since the bridge incident, which," She looked back at her baby brother who was grinning like a fool, "You didn't help one bit. Which is why you're staying inside until we've worked everything out."

"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Huh? Play solitaire?" Johnny pouted.

"You could try helping out. We need to get this place cleaned up, begin gathering data, and work towards fixing this." Reed spoke up.

"What? Do I look like an intern to you?" Johnny scoffed. "…Actually that's not a bad idea. Reed. Get us an intern, a real hot one."

"Johnny, we are not getting an intern so you can sexually harass some poor girl," Sue crossed her arms, and Dr. Richard's face took on a thoughtful look, "Actually… we did put out an ad before the space mission for a new lab assistant. It's not a terrible idea to have an extra set of hands on deck," He'd go immediately to his laptop and pulled up the listing he'd had on the web. A disappointed expression came across his face, "…There was only one applicant."

The Storm siblings had followed him over and Johnny snickered, "You mean no one wanted to work with the great Reed Richards?" Sue smacked him on the arm and looked at the screen, "…Reed, it says you sent an acceptance email."

"What? That's impossible. I haven't touched this in months." He clicked open the email exchange and confusion met his eyes, "The automatic message I had prepared must have malfunctioned and sent on its own…" He moved the cursor over to her response, "…This girl thinks she's been hired here and will be arriving on…"

"Today?" Johnny looked over his shoulder with a gleeful expression, "OH man, this is going to be hilarious. How close to 2 o'clock is it? I am pumped!"

Reed winced and looked at Sue, "Well… maybe it won't be so bad. We needed someone anyways…"

The elevator dinged, signaling that it was about to open, causing all 3 of them to look that way as the curvy brunette stepped out. Darcy's long curly brown hair was hanging loose and she had opted for a simple black pencil skirt with a red Beatles shirt tucked in and a pair of chucks. She had a computer bag slung over her shoulder, a tray of lattes in one hand and she adjusted her black rimmed glasses with the other, "Uh, hey, I'm Darcy Lewis. I'm here for the job. Oh, and I brought coffee."

"Director." Phil Coulson held his phone to his ear. "Lewis has just made contact,"

"Coulson, I thought I told you we were pulling that plan when they went public 3 days ago," His boss's irritated voice made it's way over the secure line, "Why did you implement it against my orders?"

"Sir. I apologize, but Miss Lewis had already seen the files, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to continue with things as previously decided opposed to terminating what could be an excellent resource in the future."

"I wanted to put a trained agent in there. Not a sorority girl."

"Darcy Lewis was never a pledge of any sort sir." Coulson's dry humor made Fury's lip twitch upward.

"You're keeping an eye on this one, in the meantime I need you down in Los Angeles. Stark's acting up."

"Already on a plane sir."

"Good." Fury discounted the line, and turned to Maria Hill, who'd been standing at attention near his podium on the Hellicarrier, "Hill. I need you to assist in containing any media coverage pertaining to Reed Richard's and 'team',"

"Wouldn't that be better handled by the PR department sir?"

"Are you saying that you're incapable of carrying out that order Hill?"

"No sir, I'm merely questioning if you think my time would be better spent handling a different matter."

"Agent Hill, if I thought your time was better spent doing other things would I have given the order?" He turned his one good eye on her, daring any additional insubordination, "This is a special case, and I'd like someone skilled on it."

"…Yes sir."

Maria Hill would salute and go off to carry out the order, but rolled her eyes once her back was too him.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I just watched the "Rise Of The Silversurfer" for the first time. I'd put off watching it for a long time, but I figured I should go ahead and see it. I wanted to get a refresher on personalities and whatnot.

Thanks for the reviews and follows, they truly warm my heart and I get a real kick out of it. 3

DISCLAIMER: I own a rather nice car, but MARVEL owns this fandom.

* * *

Seated on the lounge couch with the tray of lattes sitting on her lap, Darcy's lips quirked in amusement as Dr. Richards tried to explain the awkward situation.

"…and so I'm sorry if there's been any confusion, but I didn't even get to really look at your resume and…" He was cut off as she put a coffee in his hand and set the rest on the coffee table in front of them, "Relax Dr. Richards, drink a latte," and she'd reach into her computer bag, pulling a folder from it then putting it in his free hand, "There's my resume, complete with additional references and a copy of my diploma. Oh, and a headshot," She smirked, "I look super good in that picture."

Reed accepted both things and sipped the hot beverage, flipping the folder open, Sue and Johnny stood behind him looking over his shoulder. "You worked with Dr. Jane Foster?" That made Reed perk up, "I've read a few of her papers, and she's brilliant." "Yeah, she is," Darcy smiled fondly, thinking of the mousey woman, hoping that wherever she was she was managing to eat at least one good meal a day.

"Your degree was in political science," Sue took the paper from Reed's hands, and raised a brow at the girl.

"Well, this isn't the first time I've been the only applicant." She offered them a toothy grin.

"This headshot is nice; would you happen to have any bikini shots?" Johnny leered at her, and Sue punched her brother in the arm, "Johnny!"

"Look, Miss Lewis, you seem like a nice young lady, and I can gather from your references that you'd be able to keep up with assisting despite your background being in a social science, but given recent situations…"

Darcy didn't let him finish, "You mean the whole super power thing? That sounds real groovy but it's not good enough to blow me off. You sent the acceptance email, I gave up my apartment and moved all the way to New York, so you're going to give me the job that was promised. Or pay to compensate me for my time and travel."

Reed winced, they didn't have much money in their accounts, so there was no way they could do a bulk payment like that. And he certainly couldn't just turn her away after she'd picked up and moved her entire life on their account. He glanced at Susan, who nodded at him, clearly she agreed that they needed to hire her. The young lady seemed professional enough and she'd worked for a physicist before so he could expect her to handle things. "Okay, of course, the job is yours. Given the mix up you're free to start tomorrow instead if you'd prefer…"

"Nah, I'm already here. I'll start by cleaning up the lab," Darcy was on her feet and down the hall, electing to find her own way around instead of being shown about.

"Well I like her," Johnny spoke up, smirking and grabbing one of the cups from the table, "She just owned Reed. And did you see that rack?"

"Who's rack? What did I miss?" Ben had returned, his heavy steps announcing his presence before he'd even spoken up. "…Who went to Starbucks?"

Darcy's head peaked out of the lab, "Hey, do you want your texts alphabetized or running on the Dewey Decimal system?" She paused for a moment to take in the sight of the 6'4 man made of orange rock, gave him a wink, and then looked back at Reed expectantly.

"Uh, alphabetically works just fine. Thank you."

"Sure thing Dr. Boss man," Before she disappeared again, leaving a confused looking Ben Grimm.

"Who was that?"

"That would be Darcy Lewis, the assistant Reed hired without meaning to hire," The blond man explained, "Oh, and I feel like there's not a huge need for this because the rock man's still in mourning and Reed, well, you're kind of asexual these days, but I'm still going to call it. DIBS!"

Sue gave her brother a flat look and opened her mouth to explain the dangers of sexual harassment in the work place.

* * *

Darcy let out a small breath of relief once she was alone in the lab. The brunette had always kind of viewed herself as a behind the scenes person so she'd been inwardly anxious when she talked back to the newly mutated man, while she was kind of on the snarky side and had studied politics she didn't feel too comfortable with confronting people one on one (taking snobby hostesses down a peg didn't count), and was glad that he'd been such a pushover. She couldn't imagine if he'd stood his ground and told her no, which would've put her in a bad position with Agent Coulson, who'd probably of taken away her nice sparkly new paycheck and kickass apartment which had a killer view of the cityscape.

Clearing her head she immediately started throwing herself into the reorganization of Dr. Richard's lab, which was a huge mess. She eyed the stacks of yellow legal pads, countless used coffee mugs, and towers of books covering the counters with a shake of her head. So much for that bachelor's degree she'd worked so hard to get the last 4 years, maybe when she got her master's she could do something really prestigious like clean windows. "Oh, spoke to soon," She said aloud, noticing the hundreds of stick notes plastered to the windows. Somehow this wasn't entirely what she pictured when Coulson offered her a job with SHIELD, but it was still better than other jobs she'd had in the past so she couldn't complain too much. When she'd gotten her internship with Jane she'd been treated to a similar first day cleaning spree. Luckily for the pop-tart consuming scientist Darcy had picked up fantastic organizational skills when she TA'd for her high school's librarian, a kind old woman with a case of crippling obsessive compulsive disorder who required that Darcy Ceram wrap all of the book covers, so this was nothing.

She'd move a book here, used a whole container of bleach that she'd found in a closet, she filled filing cabinets, put up a few framed pictures she found lying around, and gathered wires left and right. Before she knew it the sun had gone down and she was emerging from the lab, which everyone had seemed to avoid except for a few incidents in which Sue Storm dragged her younger brother out after he barged in on her before he could even utter a word and Reed bringing her a sandwich upon his ex-girlfriend's insistence.

"Okay, so, everything is done." Darcy announced, walking out into the main area, carelessly wiping her hands on her skirt. "Yeah right, I've seen that madhouse, there's no way you got it clean that fast," Ben snorted, "It's been what? 6 hours? That place needs a week at least." "Man, don't you know that I've got mad skills when it comes to this stuff," She dismissed him with a wave of her arm, "Just do me a favor and don't touch the stack of papers in the blue folder, I need to convert that data to digital," Reed walked into the lab and stood in shock, "I don't think it was even this clean in here when I moved in…" He'd allow himself to wander his lab as if it was a completely new place. "Like I said, I'm good at what I do," Darcy smirked.

"And what all do you do?" The fire-starter slid on over to her smoothly, putting an arm around her shoulder. He looked down at her with those devilish baby blues and wiggled his brows.

"I always carry a Taser." She looked up at him flatly, pulling her beloved weapon of choice from a holster that had apparently been hidden under her skirt, though Johnny had no idea who considering how tight in looked on her curves.

"I like my girls a little electric," He wiggled the fingers resting on her shoulder and leaned his face a little closer to hers. Tempting death had always been a specialty of his, and there were worse ways to die than being electrocuted by a pretty girl. Sure, she had that bookish thing going on, but he was kind of into naughty librarians.

Darcy crinkled her nose at his bad joke and opted to step on his foot as hard as possible, "And I like my men a little less annoying,"

Johnny yelped and Ben let out a deep hearty laugh, "God, Reed, I love this girl. I'm glad you accidently hired her." "As am I," Reed had returned from the lab, "I'm shocked that Dr. Foster let you go," "Well, she got invited on a trip to Iceland or somewhere that I couldn't follow her on," She shrugged, "anyways, I'm going to jet. What time do you want me to come back tomorrow?" Reed considered this, "I want to begin physicals and analysis tomorrow concerning the mutations we're currently manifesting, so a bright and early start is probably best…" Johnny moaned in the background at the prospect of waking up early, "…how's 6 am work?"

"I'll be here. It was nice meeting you all, see you later," Darcy smiled at 3 out of 4, and gave a cold stare to the remaining percent, before picking up her bag and leaving.

"It's really great in here," Reed said, leaning over to stare back into his lab. "…Maybe I'll start some work tonight…" Sue shot him a look, "Or you could get some sleep and work tomorrow." "…Or that." Reed had forgotten how much of a fussy mother hen Susan could be, but it brought a smile to his lips, he'd actually always liked how compassionate and caring she was. Their eyes met and there was a moment of wistfulness between them before Reed broke it, "Right. We should all get some sleep."

Sue looked away right after him, "Yeah, good idea, night," She'd depart to her room and Johnny rolled his eyes at the pair, "Dude, you're so transparent," He'd pat Reed on the shoulder and went off himself.

Reed looked to Ben, a curious look on his face, "…I'm not, Sue's the one with invisibility…"

Ben Grimm just shook his head.

* * *

Coulson looked at his phone from the back of a town car driving him to a hotel. He'd received an email from Darcy giving her report for the first day, it included her brief interactions with the group, various bits about the research in the lab, and a small bit of ranting over the amount of "manual labor" that she had to endure. Phil bit back a small chuckle when she described Johnny Storm's hitting on her as a reason she "needed more money to buy hand sanitizer in mass quantities for bathing to get the sleaze off".

"There's a bit of traffic sir, you know LA, so it's going to be a little longer of a drive," The driver spoke up from the front seat, interrupting Coulson's reading.

"Oh, that's fine. I'm just going to listen to some music," He smiled calmly at the man in the black newsboy cap, and reached into the inner pocket of his suit, producing a solid black 80GB IPod with an Adventure Time sticker on the back of it. He popped the ear buds in and relaxed some in the backseat. While she lacked a certain tact in her daily report, Darcy Lewis had fantastic tastes in music.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors NOTE**: Hey guys, sorry for the delay! Life can be a real bitch sometimes. Anyways, I'm super grateful for all of the story favorites and follows, they fill my heart with all sorts of good stuff 3 I'm trying to figure where I want to take this story beyond following the movie story line and whether or not I want to make Darcy/Johnny the official pairing. What do you think?

* * *

Susan Storm had been taking care of others her whole life. Her father had split on her mother after some huge fight when she was 9, leaving Janice Storm a complete wreck and shutting out her children. That's when Sue had started acting more like a mom than a big sister to 6 year old Johnny, who'd been confused as to why their dad never came home and why mommy wouldn't get out of bed. In college when she'd started dating Reed she had to deal with his lack of concern for his own wellbeing when he got consumed by his work, something she'd broke down on him about one night after he'd collapsed from not sleeping for a few days. Reed hadn't realized how badly she'd been hurting over it and had promised to be better, a promise that he'd been unable to keep multiple times.

Which was why she crossed her arms in irritation as she approached the lab that morning to find him leaning over his work space, typing away on his computer as he worked on schematics of what data they currently had, huge bags of dark blue bruising the under's of his eyes. She opened to her mouth to chastise him only to be beaten to the punch.

"Dr. Richards, step away from the research and go to bed."

Sue looked over in surprise at their new hire. Darcy Lewis had been with them for 2 weeks and had been somewhat of a godsend. The 23 year old kept the place ridiculously tidy, organized Reed's scribble notes on their mutations into legible understandable spreadsheets, and somehow lit the place up with her witty sarcastic rebuffs of Johnny's near constant advances. And apparently now she could add "kicking Reed's ass" to the list.

"But I'm so close to figuring this-"

"And I'm so close to finding out whether or not you can conduct electricity even as a human rubber-band," She cocked her Taser for effect.

Reed stared at it for a moment, "…That's actually an interesting hypothesis…"

"BED." Darcy gave him a harsh look and Reed just nodded dumbly, standing up and walking out as quickly as possible, pausing to look back towards his computer, making the brunette give him an even sterner look and he finally scampered off for good.

Sue gave a half-hearted laugh, "Wow, how many siblings you have?"

"None, unless you count all the other foster kids." Darcy tucked her best friend into her coat pocket, "I just have a lot of practice with scientists who forget they're not robots." The blond looked at her, interested as they hadn't heard anything about her personal life, "You grew up in foster care?"

"I grew out of foster care!" Was her lame attempt at humor as she started to clean up Reed's left behind work-space. Sue would take a seat on one of the lab stools, invitingly smiling at the other woman, "You'll have to excuse me, I'm just a little curious, and we know so little about you on a personal level." "Well, I'm an open book so you can ask away," Darcy plopped down on the other chair across from her. "Well, almost an open book, I refuse to discuss whether this is my natural hair color!" Darcy cracked a sideways grin, totally prepared. She had been expecting something like this eventually.

"Why are you working a job like this when your degree is in something else?" That had Sue a little suspicious.

"Honestly?" Darcy couldn't be honest about it, but she could offer something that sounded plausible, "I got into political science because no one ever cared what I had to say. Growing up in a human version of Hot Potato people never ask you what you think about what's happening and you have no control over your own life." The brunette frowned, that had been more honest then she'd meant, but it felt good so she'd continue, "I snuck into this socialites wedding when I was a kid, and the bride was probably the prettiest person I'd ever seen in my life, olive skin and this amazing black hair, but you know what? This older woman comes in, she was pretty normal looking and wore a pantsuit, but like, everyone started fawning over her. It's this gorgeous woman's wedding and everyone's paying attention to this lady in the suit and I ask someone why and they're like, "don't you know who she is? She's the Governor!" and I'm completely blown away."

Sue listened, but would frown, "But that doesn't answer my question…"

"I'm getting there," Darcy shook from that particular memory, "So, I get it in my head that if I want to be heard then the way to do it is by becoming someone important. I worked my ass off, dealt with a lot of asshole teachers in honors classes who'd rather try and bang me then teach me, one totally did by the way, and I get to the last year of college where I get to do an internship. I managed to score one in the Governor's office, and I'm psyched to meet the lady who kick started my ambition and I get down there to the office and she takes one look at me and says, "your boobs are too big, this is why I only hire men" and fires me on the spot."

"That's against the law," The blond gaped, "She didn't really do that…did she?"

"She did, and I was completely devastated. I tried to complain and get the media involved, but well, like always no one listened. My whole image of her was shattered and I still needed 6 credits to graduate, so I grabbed the first internship on the bulletin board in the student center and got lucky as the only applicant. New Mexico was pretty boring, but I don't know, Jane always spoke to me like a person and I was really good at that job, even if I had no idea what anything she was writing meant. So I figured, stick to what I'm actually good at." Darcy stood up and went back to picking up the papers.

"Looking good in a pencil skirt?" Johnny had woken up, and entered the lab in only his boxer shorts. He wiggled his brows at Darcy. "Cause you look hotter than me," His skin sizzled, smoking rising from it.

The glasses wearing girl looked at him unimpressed, "Oh wow. Another flame joke. Good job Blondie, you get a gold star," And she'd head into the other room to file the notes.

"Johnny! Go put some clothes on," Sue rolled her eyes at her brother, "You kind of interrupted us talking,"

"Oh, you mean you interrogating little orphan Darcy?" He'd been lingering for a while, having been listening around the corner. "Why are you so suspicious of her?"

"I'm not," Sue said, "…at least not anymore. She's doing good work and after listening to that it's kind of calmed me down. But you know, it was just weird timing. What with our powers and her showing up so conveniently…"

"Sue. Can't you just enjoy this? I am, even if Reed's working 24-7 to cure old pop-rocks you can't tell me he isn't enjoying his powers as a human slinky, Ben will get over it eventually, so c'mon, just embrace this crazy bit of random happenstance and learn to have fun with it." Johnny grinned at his sister.

Sue just shook her head, "Everything's not that simple…" He'd go to contest that and she'd put her hand up cutting him off, "Go. Put on cloths. Now."

Johnny pouted, but would turn and go to get dressed, listening to his sister like a baby duck.

* * *

Darcy had run out to pick up lunch for everyone, as well as meet briefly with Coulson, but she'd been unable to do so as he'd been called off to handle something he referred to as "a meeting with a classified person" in his text message. She'd rolled her eyes and texted him back teasingly to "use protection and be sure to treat her like a lady" which prompted nothing but a return text containing an oddly dry looking smiley emoticon. She slipped her phone back into her purse and did her best to balance the two large bags containing takeout from a Chinese place down the road the doorman suggested and a tray of drinks.

"Hold the elevator!" She called out to the lone rider, who smoothly placed a hand wearing an expensive looking wrist watch on the side of the sliding door. "Thanks," she said and would hustle in, looking to the buttons, "can you press…oh hey. The buttons already pressed. Are you a friend of Dr. Richards?" Darcy finally looked at her fellow elevator companion and raised a brow, fighting a small smirk at just how attractive he was.

Victor Von Doom regarded her a little differently. He hadn't expected Reed to have visitors, let alone one as young as the girl juggling bags of Chinese food beside him. Reed wasn't close with his family so she wasn't a relative, and Sue wouldn't let one of Johnny's bimbos into the tower during all of this, and it was clear she was running errands so he could only assume… "Yes. I am, you must be Reed's assistant?" "Yeah, I am. Darcy Lewis." She maneuvered to allow one hand free to shake his and he accepted it, "Nice to meet you Miss Lewis. I'm Victor."

Darcy's glasses slid down her nose as she looked at him straight on and gave a friendly smile and something seemed to register with Victor. She bore a stunning resemblance to a painting that hung back in his family's manor in Latvia, a portrait done some 40 years ago when his mother had been freshly into her 20's and still a fresh faced young lady not yet harshened by family traditions that plagued their household. The young woman's eyes then lit up with recognition of their own, "OH! Victor Von Doom! Whoa dude, you're like, crazy rich."

That brought him out of his thoughts and he'd give a small chuckle, "Yes. I am. Looks like we're here," The elevator dinged and the doors opened up, "After you," He gestured for her to go ahead and she did so, calling out, "I've got food! Reed! If you're back in the lab I'm going to give your desert to Johnny!" Darcy began to set the bags down on the table and shook her arms out, glad to finally have them free.

Sue entered in from the hall and noticed their unannounced guest, "Victor."

"Susan," He gave her a smile, happy to see her, but an impending sense of worry slowly out beating his ego as to why she hadn't contacted him the past month.

Darcy looked between them and then at her feet, she hated getting stuck in people's awkward love life moments. "So uh, yeah, I'm going to grab some plates…" She ducked out just in time because Reed had emerged from the back, "I wasn't in the lab I was just looking for…Victor!"

Yeah. Super awkward. Darcy had noticed all the vibes stretch-Armstrong and Sue had been shooting back and forth and Ben had told her they used to date, but Susan had been seeing someone else. Now she knew who that someone else was…

"Hey future Mrs. Storm, did you get me kung pao chicken?" Johnny appeared next to her like a damned apparition, that cheesy look on his face. Darcy didn't even bat an eyelash as she pulled plates down from the cabinet, "That's a pipe dream," She scoffed. His grin grew wider, "So you dream about us being married? Do you wear an apron and darn my socks?" "Right after I put cyanide in your evening scotch," She said with sweet-voiced sarcasm.

The blond laughed and tried to come up with a quick retort as he leaned a little too close, "Darcy Darcy Darcy…" He paused. "…Darcy Darcy Darcy." "Yeah, don't try to hurt yourself there torch," She took the plates back into the living room area, glad to see that there was less of an awkward scene as Victor and Sue were not to be seen and Reed sat on the couch looking deep in thought joined by Ben who was sitting in his own armchair. "Did Sue split?" Darcy asked, as she sat down and began to dish out food, serving Ben first with a large steel plate she'd found at the flea market that he'd been unable to break so far.

"She and Victor are just having a conversation." Reed looked up, and would accept his plate when it came to him.

Ben gave a shake of his head, "Hope she dumps him."

"Ben," Reed gave him a look, "If he makes Sue happy we should support that,"

"God you're a total chick Reed." Johnny plopped down on the couch next to Darcy, sitting much to close and swinging an arm behind her. "But I'm pro-Doom, dudes got style."

"Yeah he does," Darcy commented, "Man in a suit never fails,"

That perked Johnny up, "So you like men who wear suits…?"

"Yeah, don't wear a suit, it won't work for you. Like. Ever." She made herself a plate and didn't bother getting him one, splitting open her chopsticks and leaning back.

Ben snorted and Reed cracked a small smile as the blond man pouted like a child, which all would be interrupted as the lights seemed to flicker and Victor swiftly walked past and out of the building, only taking a small moment to cast a look towards Darcy before he was gone. Sue emerged after, looking crestfallen and somewhat confused from their conversation.

The brunette called out, "Hey, Sue, there's an eggroll with your name on it. Sit down,"

Sue looked over and gave a small smile, grateful no one asked as they all dug in, Darcy giving her a grin, "So, let me tell you about the time I got kicked out of Disney World for stealing the Minnie Mouse costume. It started with me drinking a whole bottle of Boone's farms…"

* * *

Victor wasn't happy with his and Sue's brief conversation. It'd always been clear to him she still had feelings for Reed and their shared power gain was bonding them together again. He'd offered to take Sue to his home and lab, to help her there, maybe even share his own side effects from the accident, but no. "Reed needed her." His hands clenched together as he slid into the backseat of his limousine, and he took a calming inhale of breath, Sue would come around. Reed Richard's didn't have the balls to try and win Susan back, and even if he did Sue was a smart woman. She'd see the superiority of what Victor was offering and return in due time, for now she was just in isolation with the others until they figured things out. Well, almost isolation…

Darcy Lewis.

He needed to look into the girl, not only for her now involvement with Richards, but because her resemblance to his own mother was unsettling, and Victor Von Doom did not like to feel unsettled.


End file.
